Wednesday 20 November marked this year’s Equal Pay Day in the UK. This is the point in the year at which, on average, female employees stop being paid compared to male counterparts and effectively work for free for the rest of the year.
This year, the day fell two days earlier than in 2023. In the EU, meanwhile, Equal Pay Day fell even earlier than in the UK, on 15 November. According to the Fawcett Society, which is behind Equal Pay Day in the UK, the gender pay gap has risen year on year and now stands at 11.3%, up from 10.7% last year. On average, it calculates that women earn £631 less than men per month, equating to £7,572 less per year.
Such statistics can prove quite galling to read. Female employees working part time, for example, account for 7% of the hourly gender pay gap, according to the Fawcett Society’s analysis of the Office for National Statistic’s Labour force survey. However, this may be, in part, because part-time roles often attract lower hourly pay than full-time positions.
While Chancellor Rachel Reeves has committed to closing the gender pay gap, the Fawcett Society is now calling on the government to commit to a 10-year strategy to do so. Its proposals include equal pay law reform, organisational equality action plans and a duty for employers to include possible flexible-working options in job adverts.
However, tackling the UK’s gender pay gap is a significant undertaking, made even more difficult by the Fawcett Society’s finding that a portion of this can be classed as unexplained. Its report Equal Pay Day 2024: Time to close the gender pay gap, for example, found that two-thirds of the hourly gender pay gap would continue to exist even if women and men worked in the same occupations and industries, had the same working hours, type of work, age and ethnicity, as well as being the same across a number of other variables. According to the report, this means that if all the variables listed above were the same then the gender pay gap would only reduce to 8.6%.
Some of the unexplained gender pay gap could be attributed to discrimination, although this is by no means the only factor.
To overcome pay inequality in the UK is, therefore. an enormous task. While numerous employers have already committed to play their part and have strategies in place to work towards a future where the gender pay gap is significantly reduced, if not eradicated, to fully achieve this further support from government and outside agencies is needed.
Debbie Lovewell-Tuck
Editor
@DebbieLovewell
